That’s a lot of C’s, haha. These indulgent chocolate cupcakes are made from a cake mix, hence “cheat” in the title. But, since I’m extra, I can’t just rely on the cake mix and I had to dress it up. Besides topping them off with chocolate cream cheese frosting, I added a few things in the batter to amp up both the richness and moisture.
My husband teases me about wanting to make everything from scratch. I admit that I can be a snob sometimes, BUT even I can see the advantage and convenience of using pre-made stuff. I try not to rely on using all pre-made items though, it really depends on what I’m trying to make. My sister and brother-in-law gave us a crap ton of Betty Crocker Super Moist Tripe Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix, and by a crap ton, I mean at least 20 boxes. Thankfully, we managed to give some to my father-in-law and siblings-in-law. However, we were still left with a significant amount.
I’ve never had this cake mix before so I thought I’d try to bake it as instructed by the box. Needless to say, I wasn’t really a fan. But we had so many of these! The hubby gently convinced me to turn it into something I’d really enjoy, so I took it as a personal challenge, haha. It resulted in these rich, moist chocolate cupcakes, so I thought I’d share what I did to them! If you like chocolate cupcakes, you will definitely enjoy these.
Tools you’ll need
Ingredients
Cupcake batter
- 1 box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Tripe Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 whole eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp instant coffee
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Chocolate cream cheese frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
- 1/2 cup salted butter (softened)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp Dutch cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp milk (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.
- Warm up the milk a bit and add the instant coffee to it. Stir and let it sit there for a bit. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk all the eggs with sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla extract until homogenous. Add the coffee milk mixture and mix.
- Fold in the cake mix, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips until full incorporated. Don't over mix!
- Scoop out the cake batter into a lined muffin or cupcake pan, filling each about 2/3 of the way. Bake for 15-16 minutes.
- While the cupcakes are baking, mix the softened salted butter with the softened cream cheese and vanilla extract using a hand mixer until fluffy and fully combined.
- Add the powdered sugar one cup at time, making sure everything is incorporated before the next cup. Mix in the Dutch cocoa powder. If the frosting is looking too thick to pipe, add the 1 tbsp of milk to loosen it up just slightly. You can either put the finished cream cheese frosting into a piping bag or keep it in the bowl--this depends on how you want to put the frosting onto the cupcakes. Chill.
- Once the cupcakes are done baking, transfer into a cooling rack and let cool for at least an hour before frosting. Otherwise, the frosting might melt.
// ON THE SCENE
- Bottom backdrop: Replica Surfaces — Midnight
- Props: cooling rack